Saturday, January 12, 2013

Watch Out! Of Guns, Citizenship, and Freedom: A Letter from a Black World War One Soldier to the Jim Crow Draft Board That Sent Him to Europe

We have been talking about gun culture and masculinity a good amount here in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre. Given the madness of the gun right, and their efforts to appropriate everything from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to black enslavement in the New World in order to further their agenda, it is easy to dismiss the relationship between the gun and "freedom."

The Gun Right's standard bearers are unhinged cartoon characters who are not truly interested in the Common Good. However, these people are so very dangerous because they have the arsenal with which to carry out their paranoid fantasies of defense against "persecution" by a "tyrannical" government.

These same folks also have a very powerful network of lobbyists who do the bidding of the gun industry, and have mastered emotional appeals through the the language of "rights" and "freedom" in order to keep their corporate masters' tills full and overflowing with gold and treasure from the blood of children.

While taking a careful account of the crazy factor common to the Gun Right in the Age of Obama, we must not forget that the gun is a tool which has been used by freedom fighters, revolutionaries, and tyrants alike. As I discussed with Professor Ann Little in our most recent podcast, whatever we make of its semiotics, the gun is ultimately also a symbol of masculine power, the phallus, and control over life and death.

I like to share pithy bits of writing when I come upon them. I was reading Lost Battalions by Richard Slotkin (whose great interview with me about American identity and gun culture will be featured on WARN's podcast series this upcoming week) when I came up the following letter from Private Sidney Wilson, a black soldier serving in the United States Army during World War One, to the draft board in Jim and Jane Crow era Tennessee:

If afoads to the soldier boys wich you have sint so far away from home a great deal of pledger to write you a few line to let you know that you low-down Mother Fuckers can put a gun in our hands but who is able to take it out? We may go to France but I want to let you know that it will not be over with untill we straiten up this state. We feel like we have nothing to do with this war, so if you are thinks it, just wait till Uncle Sam puts a gun in the niggers hands and you will be sorry of it, because we have coloured luetinan up here, and thay is planning against this country everday. So all we wants now is the ammunition, then you can all look out, for we is coming.

He is no Rob Williams. The political philosophy is not fleshed out here; nor, does it rise to the level of political ideology. The anger is raw. His heart is real. But, this brother's understanding of the power of the gun, and both its practical and symbolic meaning, cannot be discounted.

Is this letter funny or sad? And how must white elites have been shaken up by how practical concerns such as the Civil War and World War One necessitated the mobilization of black men in wartime, when the latter would learn the lethal arts and then come home and demand their full citizenship rights (again and again and again)?

It is no wonder why the Racial State has repeatedly gone to such great lengths to oppress black and brown folks who had found the dignity of the gun and a uniform. We had paid our freedom dues; those who owed us the check would do anything to renege on payment in full. And eventually those same elites were bent (if not broken) as they made a tactical retreat and surrender to the inexorable demands of the Black Freedom Struggle during the Cold War.

As I am fond of asking, what is Sidney Wilson thinking about the United States today as he either looks on from the afterlife, or walks among us reincarnated?

19 comments:

That pretty much says it all. Everyone has the right to self-defense and the right to resist tyranny. I really think that the modern political left has done itself and the country a great disservice by running away from the 2nd Amendment. Malcolm and Robert F. Williams are the relevant icons here, not MLK.

@shady. and also do not forget that jefferson was a white supremacist--read the notes on the state of virginia who by definition believed in herrenvolk democracy. guns were a way to control slaves, for the elite planter class like him to manage their social lessors, and to expand the frontier by killing indians.

@Bill No, actually the everyone has the right to self-defense and the right to resist tyranny quote is not (consciously anyway) a reference to Jefferson. It's a Shady quote. =)

Jefferson was certainly not the only Founder to have had a belief in the right to bear arms. There were several.

@CDV, I'm fully aware of Jefferson's and most of the Founders problematic views on whiteness, slavery, Indians, etc. The thing is though at the same time that we disdain the men for their flaws, we still have to recognize the good ideas they had or put another way, the good ideas they stumbled across and didn't think should be extended to blacks.

I could quote Robert F. Williams, Geronimo Pratt, Cyril Briggs, Malcolm or David Walker if you like. The quotes would be roughly equivalent to the Founders on this issue. Arguably the modern NRA is ripping off the Panthers when it comes to expansive views on gun rights.

Everyone has the right to defend themselves. Period. End of story. As you write, the gun can be used by freedom fighters and tyrants alike. People on the left shouldn't allow robust defense of the 2nd Amendment to be monopolized by the Right.

@D. Thank god for those "militants" like Brother Dr. King, Malcolm, Sojourner, and many others, male, female, black, white, straight, gay, young, and old...and yes, like Sidney Wilson. Militants make history and have made this society better.

Oh, don't be so sensitive. First of all, I'm Black and male, same as you. Second of all, I did not intend the word "militants" to be negative. Militants are aggressive and combatant in pursuit of a political goal. This describes Wilson very well; race is always and only political. King, on the other hand, is not a militant. Nevertheless, Wilson has my respect and admiration. I only disagree with your assessment concerning Full Citizenship as Wilson's motivation. When lieutenants begin "planning against [countries]", we're talking about a game-plan very different than what Dr. King ever envisioned (Malcolm might have agreed though).

The best equivalent, IMO, is the Late Roman Empire. By enlisting anti-citizens into the army, they set off a chain reaction that led to the Fall of Rome and the birth of new kingdoms and empires led by those former anti-citizens.

I believe that the lieutenants mentioned in the letter wanted America to fall, or at the very least carve out a territory for themselves and other African Americans; history repeats itself after-all. It would have been ugly, but you can't be anti-citizens in a country you build for yourself. I just wonder if it would have been worth the blood.

@D. Not sensitive. Don't go to that default narrative of the white racial frame where people of color who are truth tellers are "sensitive" and "emotional" which by contrast suggests that white folks and defenders of Whiteness are not. That is one of the deep games that white supremacy plays in the U.S. and the West.

Could care less if you are a "black male." I don't deal in essentialized categories.

You dismissed him as a "militant." I pointed out that militants have done much good work for the Black Freedom Struggle.

Lest you forget, Brother King was considered a "militant" too and was one of the most unpopular people in the United States among both whites and blacks at the time of his murder.

If you do more reading on World War One and groups such as the Harlem Hellfighters, the first units and their officers were a very special group of men. They did not want America to "fall." Most blacks who fought in all of this country's wars did not want America to "fall." And brother Wilson likely realized that Jim and Jane Crow had to be destroyed in order to make America live up to its potential and democratic creed.

Start with Douglass essays and work forward. Then you will see how black men and women understood military service as part of the great freedom struggle. Thank goodness for their militancy.

Not sensitive. Don't go to that default narrative of the white racial frame where people of color who are truth tellers are "sensitive" and "emotional" which by contrast suggests that white folks and defenders of Whiteness are not.

Brother D. did not now, nor has he ever in any manner, form, or fashion channeled any aspect of the "white racial frame".

Could care less if you are a "black male." I don't deal in essentialized categories.

Yes you do, but only essentialized "white male pathologies".

The brother wasn't making any essentialized claims, rather, he was signalling to very obviously signalling to his black partisan bona fides.

Lest you forget, Brother King was considered a "militant" too and was one of the most unpopular people in the United States among both whites and blacks at the time of his murder.

The Hon.Bro.Min. spoke out against militarism and unbridled federal spending for the same rather than federal spending for the poor - that's what got him shot. He had the audacity to fix his mouth to speak truth to the money power.

Interestingly, the white feminist frame is shockingly, scandalously, and immorally quiet when it comes to speaking any such truth to either militarism or the money power. As far as they're concerned, if Hellury or Susan Rice or Michele Flournoy get the reins of that power, it's all good no matter how many little red, yellow, black or brown children get plowed into oblivion pursuant to the interests of the Impyre. Matter fact, negrified proxies for the white feminist frame routinely spit on the Hon.Bro.Min.'s grave with their uncritical support for the Hon.Bro.Preznit.Stephen.Obama.

Preznit Stephen is hellbent on trying to advance the militarized money power's agenda of disarming American peasants - all the while "growing" as an increasingly sensitive and emotional proxy for the white feminist frame.

@cnu. up late too? what is responsible for your fixation on the white feminists and such? What is going on there?

brother d said some interesting stuff. i disagree. i want to hear more from him. that is good.

but you keep coming back to this gun stuff and masculinity narrative. why is that?

I call out ign'ts. I don't understand why you keep overlooking that fact to shoehorn me into some box because I am not in agreement with the oiled up clowns at blacktown.net.

You fundamentally misunderstand all that I have done for the last five years if you do not get how I always qualify how race is a social construction, one which holds for white men, and white masculinity too. these categories are true lies. i call out mess both ways. right now, there are some, who i do not understand, that are terribly afraid of talking about white masculinity and mass gun violence. baffling really. i have an interview this week that i hope you listen to. you will find much to agree and disagree with. the guest is one of the foremost subjects on the topic and blessed me with 60 mins. please listen and share your thoughts.

Again, why do you keep defending "white masculinity?" Ideal typical white men who are deeply invested in that construct have no love or use for you, the most reactionary and recalcitrant among them especially, why defend them? I just don't get that on your part.

Pvt Wilson on the other hand, had a damn sight more of Django/RobertWilliams/CNu in him - and was on about something more straight-up, simple, direct and plain...,

Arguably the modern NRA is ripping off the Panthers when it comes to expansive views on gun rights.

Everyone has the right to defend themselves. Period. End of story. As you write, the gun can be used by freedom fighters and tyrants alike. People on the left shouldn't allow robust defense of the 2nd Amendment to be monopolized by the Right.

Again, why do you keep defending "white masculinity?" Ideal typical white men who are deeply invested in that construct have no love or use for you, the most reactionary and recalcitrant among them especially, why defend them? I just don't get that on your part.

I am legitimately curious.

rotflmbao...., whew!!!!

Thanks for the belly laugh CDV.

Now that Bro. D. and Shady Grady have stepped up and made plain that negroes with guns are not a "white masculine pathology" - and moreover - that being a negroe with guns is not unique to yours truly - I'm disinclined to play make believe with you on that worn out trope.

So I'ma flip it around on you like you wuz Piers Morgan appearing on a broadcast of Infowars and Alex Jones was controlling the mic - Respectable negroe, HAVE YOU GOTTEN A GUN YET AND HAVE YOU LEARNED HOW TO USE IT?

Cnu. I didn't say that having guns was a white masculine pathology. not once. ever. defining one's manhood by having a gun is a sign of something wrong. pathology? not sure? limited thinking and issues around identity? yes. ignoring gun laws, race, the racial state, and the like, is foolish.

what is in the apartment finally. no comment. vagueness can be a good thing.

again, why are you linking masculinity and femininity to gun ownership? that is some phallocentric mess I don't get. if i have a gun or not, or if you have a gun or not, does not make you more or less a man.

one of the baddest women--beauty and brains--i ever met had 3 guns sitting out on the table one night.

i doubt she thought of herself as "masculine."

again, please tell me where this fixation on narrow tropes of masculinity is coming from? what is the genesis for guns equals manhood as of late for you?

I didn't say that having guns was a white masculine pathology. not once. ever.

So in the land of blind men, the one-eyed man still is king?

defining one's manhood by having a gun is a sign of something wrong.

Who does that?

pathology? not sure? limited thinking and issues around identity? yes. ignoring gun laws, race, the racial state, and the like, is foolish.

Wandering off into the babelish is what makes academics practically and politically useless.

Please unpack all that and make it straight up simple and plain.

again, why are you linking masculinity and femininity to gun ownership?

I'm not now and I never have.

On the other hand, I quite plainly view the political agenda to disarm folks as something which has broad and deep political support among white feminists which white feminists dominate both the liberal arts academy and the popular media and political mainstream.

Strict gun control is a fundamental plank of the left political agenda and the left political agenda is disproportionately dominated by white feminist grievances.

Robert Williams and Black Panthers spinning in their graves over what has become of black partisan politics and black partisan identity after forty years of academic and mainstream feminization.

what is the genesis for guns equals manhood as of late for you?

Actually, for me, it's sword, because the sword embodies real and essential physical, psychological, and earned merit, whereas a gun is an egalitarian nightmare.

That said, American culture is gun culture and in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is indeed king. So, mastery of gun is one of those practical necessities indispensable to individual sovereignty and freedom in America.

Is this Private Wilson letter authentic? Some sentences are written in broken English, other sentences aren’t. He can spell ammunition, but he cannot spell pleasure. Is there a footnote which documents where the author got this letter?

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